best behaviour

This morning, the Bear and I went for an interview at his new kindy. It's part of a local special school, and his application had to go to panel to be approved. This interview was the final thing before his enrolment was finalised.

Well! Can I just say that he must have known today was an important day. He must have been very aware that his immediate future rested on this interview.

"Oh!", you must be thinking. "How beautifully, how perfectly, how sweetly he must have behaved."

Well you'd be wrong.

So very, very wrong.

The Bear pulled out all the stops and did some sensational door work. (Door work, for those who don't know the Bear, involves opening doors. Then closing them. Repeat ad infinitum.) Then he started his light-switch work. He switched the lights on, off, on, off, on, off, like a thing possessed.

Then he started biting. Me, thank goodness. I now have seven bite-bruises, all on my lower left arm. That's the one that was stopping him from opening the main door.

And oh! Then he noticed the Principal's pen. Clearly, the lid needed to be taken on and off a few times. And who better than the Bear for this important job? Whoops, another bite for Mummy. Upper arm this time, for a change of pace.

At this point, the Principal noted that he was displaying a lot of ASD behaviours. Really? I hadn't noticed.

But do you know what? That's exactly the behaviour I wanted to see from him today. You see, he needs this place at this kindy. They are the best people to help unlock the child within my gorgeous boy. He will grow and develop to be the child he is destined to be. They are the people who will teach him, and me, and us, so much as we travel this as yet un-named path. We don't know yet whether the Bear has a Speech/Language Impairment, an Autism Spectrum Disorder or both.

What we do know is that he's our bear. And we love him.